Our IVF Journey

Thank you for taking the time to visit our page and read our story. If you don't know us, we are Brynne and Sarah! We fell in love as best friends and have been married for almost 3 years. We are currently in the process of trying to expand our family.

As many of you already know, we have been trying to have a baby through the IVF process. Anyone who has struggled with infertility knows that this can be a long, grueling, and emotionally draining process. Our second round of IVF gave us so much hope as we created one beautiful embryo blastocyst that was highly graded (embryos are graded on scales and ours was perfect). Unfortunately, embryo grading does not correlate with whether or not the embryo has any chromosomal concerns or whether or not it will become a viable pregnancy. We proceeded with PGTA testing and waited about 10 days for the results. Our hearts were broken when we were informed that our embryo was missing two chromosomes and that it would not be viable for life.

After our second failed round of IVF using Sarah’s eggs, we were told that the odds of achieving a live birth from Sarah’s eggs would be unlikely, due to a diagnosis of low amh (anti mullerian hormone), low afc (antral follicle count), and diminished ovarian reserve. We knew these things would play a factor in our success from the beginning, but it was important to us to have a baby that would be genetically related to Liam and Charlotte. As we move forward we have made the difficult decision to go a different route and use Brynne’s eggs instead of Sarah’s. Using Brynne’s eggs should give us a higher likelihood of a live birth, due to her age. We are very thankful to have another option.

This process has been a huge financial and emotional burden on our family. Our insurance will not cover reciprocal IVF (the process of using one partner's eggs/embryo and implanting the embryo into the other partner's uterus) for same sex couples. Even though our doctor gave Sarah a diagnosis of infertility, which included proof in the form of TWO FAILED IVF CYCLES, blood work, ultrasounds, etc- insurance STILL DENIED us. TWICE. It has been emotionally draining, spending hours on the phone with insurance, just to be given inconsistent information each time. We have most recently filed an appeal for the insurance decision.

To help you understand the costs of IVF, we have compiled a list of the costs/fees throughout the process. Everything listed below was required of us.

The rest of the costs below have been completely out of pocket and WERE NOT able to be included in the loan amount. This is the additional amount of money we have already spent:

At this point in time, we do not have enough money left on our loan to proceed with another cycle using Brynne’s eggs. To do another round we will need approximately:

So many people have asked us if they can help us, so we set up this fundraiser for those of you who have asked. We are very aware that people have varying opinions on IVF, fundraising, and asking for help and that is completely ok. We are very serious when we say that the best, most meaningful, and important thing to us is the emotional support we have received from each and every one of you! Those of you who have reached out to us with your own stories, or those who have cried with us, loved us, and supported us. It was difficult to share our story for fear of judgement, loss, and heartbreak. We have only been able to make it this far because of the love that we have been shown.

In sharing our story and our struggles, we hope to raise awareness about the IVF process and the emotional, physical, and financial burdens that individuals experience. It is VERY real and we want to be real with all of you. We would also love to raise awareness in regards to healthcare in this country and equality for everyone, including same sex couples who are hoping to have a baby. Our heart aches for everyone who is experiencing infertility and going through fertility treatments. Regardless of who you are, this is something that should be covered by insurance. To put our situation into perspective, we have several heterosexual friends who have gone through IVF on the SAME insurance plan and the majority of their IVF was covered. Women who have the same diagnosis as Sarah, but are in a heterosexual relationship would already have their fertility benefits covered by insurance. While we are very aware of president Trump's executive order to provide more funding for IVF in the US, this will take time and nothing is guaranteed. An executive order sets an intention that something is a priority for the administration, but nothing has changed yet. We are moving forward with our hearts and with our own personal timeline for our family. We know nothing is guaranteed in life, including time. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to either one of us. We are an open book! I know some of you have expressed your hesitancy to reach out because you’re worried we don’t want to talk about it. Talking about it helps us cope and heal. Never be afraid to ask us questions. We love you all and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making us feel safe, loved, and seen.